Scientific Discrimination and the Activist Scientist: L.C. Dunn and the Professionalization of Genetics and Human Genetics in the United States

During the 1920s and 1930s geneticist L.C. Dunn of Columbia University cautioned Americans against endorsing eugenic policies and called attention to eugenicists’ less than rigorous practices. Then, from the mid-1940s to early 1950s he attacked scientific racism and Nazi Rassenhygiene by co-authoring Heredity, Race and Society with Theodosius Dobzhansky and collaborating with members of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) on their international campaign against racism. Even though shaking the foundations of scientific discrimination was Dunn’s primary concern during the interwar and post-World War II years, his campaigns had ancillary consequences for the discipline. He contributed to the professionalization of genetics during the 1920s and 1930s and sought respectability for human genetics in the 1940s and 1950s. My article aims to elucidate the activist scientist’s role in undermining scientific discrimination by exploring aspects of Dunn’s scientific work and political activism from the 1920s to 1950s. Definitions are provided for scientific discrimination and activist scientist.     

Separated at Birth: The Interlinked Origins of Darwin’s Unconscious Selection Concept and the Application of Sexual Selection to Race

This essay traces the interlinked origins of two concepts found in Charles Darwin’s writings: “unconscious selection,” and sexual selection as applied to humanity’s anatomical race distinctions. Unconscious selection constituted a significant elaboration of Darwin’s artificial selection analogy. As originally conceived in his theoretical notebooks, that analogy had focused exclusively on what Darwin later would call “methodical selection,” the calculated production of desired changes in domestic breeds. By contrast, unconscious selection produced its results unintentionally and at a much slower pace. Inspiration for this concept likely came from Darwin’s early reading of works on both animal breeding and physical ethnology. Texts in these fields described the slow and unplanned divergence of anatomical types, whether animal or human, under the guidance of contrasting ideals of physical perfection. These readings, it is argued, also led Darwin to his theory of sexual selection as applied to race, a theme he discussed mainly in his book The Descent of Man (1871). There Darwin described how the racial version of sexual selection operated on the same principle as unconscious selection. He thereby effectively reunited these kindred concepts.     

Diurnal temperature range and emergency room admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Taiwan

The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between diurnal temperature range (DTR) and emergency room (ER) admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in an ER in Taichung City, Taiwan. The design was a longitudinal study in which DTR was related to COPD admissions to the ER of the city’s largest hospital. Daily ER admissions for COPD and ambient temperature were collected from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2002. There was a significant negative association between the average daily temperature and ER admissions for COPD (r =  −0.95). However, a significant positive association between DTR and COPD admissions was found (r = 0.90). Using the Poisson regression model after adjusting for the effects of air pollutants and the day of the week, COPD admissions to the ER increased by 14% when DTR was over 9.6°C. COPD patients must be made aware of the increased risk posed by large DTR. Hospitals and ERs should take into account the increased demand of specific facilities during periods of large temperature variations.     

Meritocracy dismissed

Undergraduates at elite universities in the US and UK are, according to Dr Warikoo, conflicted about the relation of racial diversity to meritocracy. In the US, white students view racial minorities as academically less qualified but as providing a diversity benefit; UK students view minorities as equal members of a meritocracy but turn a blind eye to racial disparities on and off campus. What Warikoo’s narrative overlooks is the role played by differences between the US and the UK in the educational paths and testing regimes that produce these disparate mentalities. Although 40 per cent of America’s colleges offer test-optional admissions, some like Harvard still require SAT/ACT scores. The SAT/ACT are predictively weak and biased, stigmatizing minorities as underperformers. Test biases and the predictive superiority of high school grades are not widely understood. Warikoo’s proposal to blow up meritocracy with an admissions lottery is to be applauded.     

The (Un)managed Self: Paradoxical Forms of Agency in Self-Management of Bipolar Disorder

Self-management of mental illness is a therapeutic paradigm that draws on a distinctly biomedical conceptualization of the isolability of personhood from pathology. This discourse posits a stable and rational patient/consumer who can observe, anticipate, and preside over his disease through a set of learned practices. But in the case of bipolar disorder, where the rationality of the patient is called into question, the managing self is elusive, and the disease that is managed coincides with the self. While humanist critiques of the biomedical model as applied to mental illness have argued that its logic fatalistically denies patients intentionality and effectiveness (Luhrmann, Of Two Minds: The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry, 2000), biomedical proponents claim that psychiatry’s way of envisioning the body as under the control of the intentional mind actually returns agency to the patient/consumer. Rose (The Psychiatric Gaze, 1999) remarks that biomedical models have the potential to “[open] that which was considered natural to a form of choice” (p. 37), and that techniques of medical self-control help constitute the free embodied liberal subject who is obliged to calculate and choose. Through an examination of clinical literature as well as the practices and narratives of members of a bipolar support group, this paper explores ethnographically the possibilities for subjectivity and agency that are conditioned or foreclosed by the self-management paradigm, which seems to simultaneously confer and deny rational selfhood to bipolar patients. To express their expertise as rational self-managers, patients/consumers must, paradoxically, articulate constant suspicion toward their present thoughts and emotions, and distrust of an imagined future self. I argue that through their self-management practices, bipolar support group members model provisional and distributed forms of agency based on an elusive, discontinuous, and only partially knowable or controllable self—revealing, perhaps, the limits of the contemporary reification and medicalization of both selfhood and disease.     

Impact of Women’s Harvest Practices on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pandanus guillaumetii</Emphasis> in Madagascar’s Lowland Rainforests<Superscript>1</Superscript>

Impact of Women’s Harvest Practices on Pandanus guillaumetii in Madagascar’s Lowland Rainforests. Pandanus guillaumetii B.C. Stone is endemic to the east coast rainforests of Madagascar. The plant is an important non-timber forest product (NTFP) for the local population living near these forests, and its leaves are collected by women to be woven into mats. These mats have economic value and are also used for daily activities. At present, little is known about how local harvesting practices impact this plant species. In this study, we describe women’s local harvest practices and quantify their impact on the P. guillaumetii population. We carried out plant inventories as well as interviews and participatory observations with local people harvesting P. guillaumetii in two villages with different population densities in the Manompana region. Inventories were conducted at varying distances from the villages in order to better understand the influence of human pressure on the plant population. The results suggest that local communities apply practices that tend to minimize the harvest impact on the plant. Harvesting seems to have no effect on the actual density of P. guillaumetii. However, the availability of plants with leaves of sufficient quality for mat production is influenced by human pressure. Considering the decreasing number of plants suitable for handicraft, we assume that their availability in the long term may not fulfill the needs of the local people.     

Darwin and His Pigeons. The Analogy Between Artificial and Natural Selection Revisited

The analogy between artificial selection of domestic varieties and natural selection in nature was a vital element of Darwin’s argument in his Origin of Species. Ever since, the image of breeders creating new varieties by artificial selection has served as a convincing illustration of how the theory works. In this paper I argue that we need to reconsider our understanding of Darwin’s analogy. Contrary to what is often assumed, nineteenth-century animal breeding practices constituted a highly controversial field that was fraught with difficulties. It was only with considerable effort that Darwin forged his analogy, and he only succeeded by downplaying the importance of two other breeding techniques – crossing of varieties and inbreeding – that many breeders deemed essential to obtain new varieties. Part of the explanation for Darwin’s gloss on breeding practices, I shall argue, was that the methods of his main informants, the breeders of fancy pigeons, were not representative of what went on in the breeding world at large. Darwin seems to have been eager to take the pigeon fanciers at their word, however, as it was only their methods that provided him with the perfect analogy with natural selection. Thus while his studies of domestic varieties were important for the development of the concept of natural selection, the reverse was also true: Darwin’s comprehension of breeding practices was moulded by his understanding of the working of natural selection in nature. Historical studies of domestic breeding practices in the eighteenth and nineteenth century confirm that, besides selection, the techniques of inbreeding and crossing were much more important than Darwin’s interpretation allowed for. And they still are today. This calls for a reconsideration of the pedagogic use of Darwin’s analogy too.     

Critical Interaction Domains between Bloom Syndrome Protein and RAD51

The American Cancer Society’s 2009 statistics estimate that 1 out of every 4 deaths is cancer related. Genomic instability is a common feature of cancerous states, and an increase in genomic instability is the diagnostic feature of Bloom Syndrome. Bloom Syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by a predisposition to cancer, is caused by mutations of the BLM gene. This study focuses on the partnerships of BLM protein to RAD51, a Homologous Recombination repair protein essential for survival. A systematic set of BLM deletion fragments were generated to refine the protein binding domains of BLM to RAD51 and determine interacting regions of BLM and ssDNA. Results show that RAD51 and ssDNA interact in overlapping regions; BLM_100–214 and BLM_1317–1367. The overlapping nature of these regions suggests a preferential binding for one partner that could function to regulate homologous recombination and therefore helps to clarify the role of BLM in maintaining genomic stability.     

Evidence of helping behavior in a free-ranging population of communally breeding warthogs

Cooperative breeding societies are defined by the presence of helpers. Defining helping behavior in cooperatively breeding mammals has been difficult because lactation limits the ability of individuals to provision non-genetic young. As a consequence, “helping” behavior has frequently included predator and conspecific defense and thermoregulation. However, these behaviors are often associated with the benefits of group living and their expression may not warrant a species’ classification as a cooperative breeder (e.g., many ungulates and pinnipeds). In this study, we examine cooperative breeding behavior in the common warthog, Phacochoerus africanus. Warthogs exhibit substantial variation in breeding strategies and females will raise their young alone or in association with other females. The size of warthog groups varies throughout the year and we investigate fission and fusion of individual breeding groups to elucidate the costs and benefits of adopting different reproductive strategies. We found that the cohesion of female groups was related to parturition suggesting that there are benefits to sociality that are related to the production and care of offspring. Additionally, we found that reproductively-aged group members will help other group members by both babysitting and adopting the group’s offspring indicating active selection for cooperation. We did not witness any incidences of yearling group members exhibiting these behaviors indicating differential trade-offs to cooperation possibly related to the helper’s age/experience.     

Neomodern Insecurity in Haiti and the Politics of Asylum

The term ‘asylum’ has a dual connotation that generates opposing but related forms of intervention: providing sanctuary and protection vs. imposing confinement and quarantine. The proliferation of “neomodern insecurity”—intrastate violence and the specter of transnational terrorism, arising within many postcolonial, postauthoritarian and postsocialist states—generates intervention practices that reflect the dual connotations of asylum. In fragile states like Haiti, national insecurity (ensekirite) often results in the flight of traumatized populations across and within national borders. For these individuals, ‘asylum’ connotes the attainment of political recognition and inclusion outside Haiti’s space of ensekirite. Ironically, these vulnerable persons may be viewed as threats to the nations they seek to enter. In so-called secure states like the United States, the threat of insecurity often engenders interventions to contain, manage and rehabilitate states of disorder, as well as their disordered subjects. By chronicling the case of a young Haitian refugee who sought asylum in the United States, was detained and then repatriated after manifesting the disordered signs of insecurity, I argue that the Haitian trope of ensekirite captures and prefigures the subjective experience of neomodernity, one for which there is no asylum.     

Mutations in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis> gene region of hepatitis B virus genotype <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis> in Turkish patients

The S gene region of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is responsible for the expression of surface antigens and includes the ‘a’-determinant region. Thus, mutation(s) in this region would afford HBV variants a distinct survival advantage, permitting the mutant virus to escape from the immune system. The aim of this study was to search for mutations of the S gene region in different patient groups infected with genotype D variants of HBV, and to analyse the biological significance of these mutations. Moreover, we investigated S gene mutation inductance among family members. Forty HBV-DNA-positive patients were determined among 132 hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) carriers by the first stage of seminested PCR. Genotypes and subtypes were established by sequencing of the amplified S gene regions. Variants were compared with original sequences of these serotypes, and mutations were identified. All variants were designated as genotype D and subtype ayw3. Ten kinds of point mutations were identified within the S region. The highest rates of mutation were found in chronic hepatitis patients and their family members. The amino acid mutations 125 (M → T) and 127 (T → P) were found on the first loop of ‘a’-determinant. The other consequence was mutation inductance in a family member. We found some mutations in the S gene region known to be stable and observed that some of these mutations affected S gene expression.     

Racial Bias in Neural Empathic Responses to Pain

Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain, principally involving regions of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula cortex. The degree of these empathic neural responses is modulated by racial bias, such that stronger neural activation is elicited by observing pain in people of the same racial group compared with people of another racial group. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a more general social group category, other than race, could similarly modulate neural empathic responses and perhaps account for the apparent racial bias reported in previous studies. Using a minimal group paradigm, we assigned participants to one of two mixed-race teams. We use the term race to refer to the Chinese or Caucasian appearance of faces and whether the ethnic group represented was the same or different from the appearance of the participant'' own face. Using fMRI, we measured neural empathic responses as participants observed members of their own group or other group, and members of their own race or other race, receiving either painful or non-painful touch. Participants showed clear group biases, with no significant effect of race, on behavioral measures of implicit (affective priming) and explicit group identification. Neural responses to observed pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and somatosensory areas showed significantly greater activation when observing pain in own-race compared with other-race individuals, with no significant effect of minimal groups. These results suggest that racial bias in neural empathic responses is not influenced by minimal forms of group categorization, despite the clear association participants showed with in-group more than out-group members. We suggest that race may be an automatic and unconscious mechanism that drives the initial neural responses to observed pain in others.     

Wallace’s Other Line: Human Biogeography and Field Practice in the Eastern Colonial Tropics

This paper examines how the 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace used biogeographical mapping practices to draw a boundary line between Malay and Papuan groups in the colonial East Indies in the 1850s. Instead of looking for a continuous gradient of variation between Malays and Papuans, Wallace chose to look for a sharp discontinuity between them. While Wallace’s “human biogeography” paralleled his similar project to map plant and animal distributions in the same region, he invoked distinctive “mental and moral” features as more decisive than physical ones. By following Wallace in the field, we can see his field mapping practices in action – how he conquered the problem of local particularity in the case of human variation. His experiences on the periphery of expanding European empires, far from metropolitan centers, shaped Wallace’s observations in the field. Taking his cues from colonial racial categories and his experiences collaborating with local people in the field, Wallace constructed the boundary line between the Malay and Papuan races during several years of work in the field criss-crossing the archipelago as a scientific collector. This effort to map a boundary line in the field was a bold example of using the practices of survey science to raise the status of field work by combining fact gathering with higher-level generalizing, although the response back in the metropole was less than enthusiastic. Upon his return to Britain in the 1860s, Wallace found that appreciation for observational facts he had gathered in the field was not accompanied by agreement with his theoretical interpretations and methods for doing human biogeography.     

Recommended Method for Chromosome Exploitation: RMCE-based Cassette-exchange Systems in Animal Cell Biotechnology

The availability of site-specific recombinases has revolutionized the rational construction of cell lines with predictable properties. Early efforts were directed to providing pre-characterized genomic loci with a single recombinase target site that served as an address for the integration of vectors carrying a compatible tag. Efficient procedures of this type had to await recombinases like ΦC31, which recombine attP and attB target sites in a one-way reaction – at least in the cellular environment of the higher eukaryotic cell. Still these procedures lead to the co-introduction of prokaryotic vector sequences that are known to cause epigenetic silencing. This review illuminates the actual status of the more advanced recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) techniques that have been developed for the major members of site-specific recombinases (SR), Flp, Cre and ΦC31. In RMCE the genomic address consists of a set of heterospecific recombinase target (RT-) sites permitting the exchange of the intervening sequence for the gene of interest (GOI), as part of a similar cassette. This process locks the GOI in place and it is ‘clean’ in the sense that it does not co-introduce prokaryotic vector parts nor does it leave behind a selection marker.     

Effects of six-day maternal separation on tonkean macaque infants

Maternal separation may induce a depressive state in infant macaques. However, this does not occur in all macaque species. From present hypotheses, it may be predicted that infants belonging to a species characterized by open and tolerant social relationships should not develop severe depressive symptoms. Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) stand as such a species. The goal of the study was to verify that the infant’s reaction to mother loss is related to the social environment. The mothers of eight 5- to 9-month-old infants were removed during 6-day experimental periods. Infants’ behavior was characterized by a mild initial protest stage, followed by a slight decrease in activity during later maternal separation, and quick recovery after the mother’s return. No despair stage occurred. During separation, group members compensated for mother’s absence by cradling the infants. That social networks determine the intensity of the infant’s response to separation has far-reaching implications with regard to the meaning of depression occurrence within social networks.     

The life histories of American stepfathers in evolutionary perspective

This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of men who become stepfathers, and their subsequent fertility patterns and lifetime reproductive success. Because women who already have children are ranked lower in the marriage market than women without children, men who marry women with children (e.g., stepfathers) are likely to have lower rankings in the marriage market as well. Using retrospective fertility and marital histories from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), I show that men who become stepfathers have lower levels of education, less income, and are more likely to have been divorced before and to already have children, all characteristics that lower their rankings in the marriage market. Men with one or two stepchildren are just as likely to have children within a marriage as non-stepfathers, although men with three stepchildren show decreased fertility. Among men age 45 and older, stepfathers have lower lifetime fertility than non-stepfathers, although the difference disappears when men’s age at first marriage is controlled for. Additionally, stepfathers have significantly higher fertility than men who never marry. The results suggest that some men become stepfathers to procure mates and fertility benefits that they would otherwise have been unlikely to obtain; for these men, raising other men’s children serves as a form of mating effort. Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program at the University of Michigan, and the Human Behavior and Evolution Society’s annual meeting at Amherst. Kermyt G. Anderson received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1999. He is currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Population Studies Center of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His current research examines the relationship between family structure, parental investment, and children’s educational and employment outcomes in South Africa.     

Evaluation of Polyethylene Oxide Compacts as Gastroretentive Delivery Systems

Compacts containing selected bioadhesive polymers, fillers, and binders were investigated for their potential as a bioadhesive gastroretentive delivery system to deliver water soluble and water insoluble compounds in the stomach. Compacts with 90:10, 75:25, and 60:40 of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) were evaluated for swelling, dissolution, bioadhesion, and in vitro gastric retention. Compacts containing higher PEO showed higher swelling (111.13%) and bioadhesion (0.62 ± 0.03 N/cm²), and retained their integrity and adherence onto gastric mucosa for about 9 h under in vitro conditions. In vivo gastroretentive property of compacts were evaluated in Yorkshire cross swines. Compacts containing 58% PVP, 40% PEO and 2% of water soluble or water insoluble marker compounds showed gastroadhesive and retentive properties in vivo. It is concluded that PEO in combination with PVP yields a non disintegrating type bioadhesive dosage form which is suitable for gastroretentive applications. A part of this study has been presented at the Controlled Release Society’s symposium held at Vienna, 2006.     

Farmer’s Lung Disease and Microbiological Composition of Hay: A Case–Control Study

Previous studies performed in France have suggested that handling hay contaminated with high amounts of moulds, and especially Absidia corymbifera and Eurotium amstelodami, may favour farmer’s lung disease. The circumstances favouring farmer’s lung disease and the distinctive microbiological composition of hay samples that provoke attacks need to be specified. We present a case–control study which investigates the agricultural practices and the microbiological composition of hay handled in patients with farmer’s lung disease as compared to those of a representative control population. Ten cases identified the hay they were handling at the onset of symptoms. The location, type of farm and working conditions were similar to those of the control farms. Conversely, the microbiological composition of hay differed, with significantly higher amounts of E. amstelodami (P < 0.01), A. corymbifera (P = 0.003), mesophilic Streptomyces (P < 0.01), thermophilic Streptomyces (P < 0.01) and Saccharomonospora viridis (P < 0.01) than in the control population. Our results demonstrate that hay identified by patients as having a harmful effect is characterized by a higher total amount of microorganisms, notably five microorganisms that seem discriminative. Mean concentrations are 2- to 115-fold higher in hay suspected to cause symptoms than in hay from a representative panel of farms. Handling hay with high amounts of these five microorganisms constitutes a risk factor for farmer’s lung disease that should be considered for the development of prophylactic measures.     

Short-term effects of pollen species on hospital admissions in the city of Madrid in terms of specific causes and age

Background In recent years there has been a notable increase in respiratory diseases in industrialised countries, which is attributed to a combination of chemical atmospheric pollution and the allergens existing in the atmosphere of big cities. Few studies, however, have analysed the effect of different pollen species on the different causes of hospital admissions other than those exclusively owing to asthma. Objective The aim of this investigation was to analyse the influence of the most abundant pollen species with the highest allergenic potential in Madrid’s atmosphere on daily emergency hospital admissions – from all causes and specific causes – according to different age groups. Methods An ecological time-series design was adopted in which the effects were quantified using Poisson regression models, taking into account different confusion factors, such as chemical and acoustic atmospheric pollution. Results Statistically significant associations were found between pollen species and hospital admissions due to respiratory causes, and between pollen species and all causes of hospital admissions and, to a lesser degree, circulatory causes. The impact was greater in the younger age groups. Concentrations of Poaceae and Platanus pollen species were the factors showing the highest correlation to the different causes of admission. Conclusion The relative risks analysis revealed a significant effect between the pollen species analysed and health for admitted patients of all age groups; this effect was greater than that detected for the environmental variables traditionally analysed in urban atmospheres.